Admin staff asked to help on hospital wards

ADMINISTRATION staff at the Royal Surrey County Hospital in Guildford have been asked to help out on wards as the trust sets out to reduce its payroll expenditure, which has included spending more than £4m on agency workers this year.

ADMINISTRATION staff at the Royal Surrey County Hospital in Guildford have been asked to help out on wards as the trust sets out to reduce its payroll expenditure, which has included spending more than £4m on agency workers this year.

A memo was circulated to all staff at the NHS foundation trust, setting out action that will be taken as it also anticipates winter weather causing disruption.

This includes asking corporate and non-clinical staff to volunteer in ward and clinical areas and only hiring agency staff as a last resort.

Alf Turner, director of transformation at the hospital, said due to the snow last winter, some staff were unable to make it into work.

“Last winter this hospital was really hit with the snow,” Mr Turner said.

“The service carried on brilliantly. When we were short in the winter people stepped in and went into wards and helped with administration work.”

He said the reason the memo was asking people to volunteer was to warn them that they may be expected to help matrons and ward sisters if bad weather created difficulties at the hospital, and not because of a lack of staff.

'Hard to recruit'

Despite hoping to make a profit of £3m in the 2012/13 financial year, Mr Turner said the trust wanted to reduce the number of agency staff it hired to fill vacancies, as they cost more money, and concentrate efforts on taking on more permanent employees.

A registered general nurse working on a ward would be paid about £15 per hour and an agency nurse would be paid £25 per hour.

The hospital’s performance report in September stated the number of permanent staff in place was 3,037, with the aim being 3,228. Agency staff will be hired when there is a shortfall in permanent staff numbers.

The same papers showed the year-to-date expenditure on agency staff was £4.043m.

A review has started to find ways to increase the number of permanent staff in order to reduce the amount of agency people that the hospital needs.

“It is hard to recruit staff,” Mr Turner said. “With nursing staff we are fortunate to have a relationship with the university [of Surrey], but we have to compete with London [NHS] trusts.”

Staff recruited from the university may only stay at the Royal Surrey for two to three years before moving on.

Mr Turner put this down to people wanting to move back home or in order to find somewhere with cheaper housing than Guildford.

“The beauty of permanent staff is they have a long-term relationship with the hospital, they build up skills and experience that should result in better patient care,” Mr Turner said.

“The problem with agency staff is when they come in for shifts, there is loyalty but not in the same way.”

Financial challenges

The hospital is also looking into ways to retain its staff, highlighting that in any given month around 30 to 40 people leave the trust.

Chief executive of the Royal Surrey, Nick Moberly, said the hospital was not immune to the financial challenges faced by the NHS across the country.

“Specific measures have been implemented across the trust to ensure that all spend and staff activity is carefully managed,” Mr Moberly said.

“These include a review of vacancies and agency spend, changes to nursing duties to ensure more time is spent on the wards and less time focused on management, and better bed management.

“In addition, it is normal in such circumstances to ask corporate and non-clinical staff members to support their front line colleagues in their non-clinical work duties as appropriate.

"These changes will ensure that the Royal Surrey’s excellent track record for patient care as a general hospital and a leading cancer centre will continue.”

A spokesman for the Royal College of Nursing said the memo was not something its members at the hospital were flagging up as a problem.